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I-98-70
June 15, 1998
NRC SCHEDULES MEETING WITH OPERATOR OF CALVERT CLIFFS PLANT TO DISCUSS APPARENT VIOLATIONS INVOLVING RADIOLOGICAL CONTROLS A Nuclear Regulatory Commission predecisional enforcement conference to discuss apparent violations of agency requirements at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant will be held on Thursday, June 18. The apparent infractions involve radiological control problems at the two-reactor Lusby, Md., facility, which is operated by Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E) Company.
Scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., the meeting between NRC staff and representatives of BG&E will take place in the Public Meeting Room at the NRC Region I office in King of Prussia, Pa. It will be open to the public for observation.
The purpose of the conference is to discuss the apparent violations, with the company given an opportunity to offer a response and provide details of any corrective actions it may have taken. The information presented will be considered by the NRC in determining the appropriate enforcement action.
A special radiological safety inspection was conducted by the NRC at Calvert Cliffs from April 20 to 24, May 11 to 14 and on May 19 and 20. That inspection was the result of an event on the morning of April 9 in which at least six workers entered the Unit 1 reactor cavity -- an area above the reactor vessel -- without wearing the required alarming radiation monitors. Four of those workers subsequently entered a high-radiation area surrounding the reactor vessel that was exhibiting dose rates ranging from 2,000 millirems per hour to 6,000 millirems per hour. (For comparative purposes, the average American is exposed to about 360 millirems of radiation from both manmade and natural sources each year.)
Later that same morning, another worker entered the same area. While the worker was wearing radiation monitors, the alarms on the devices had been incorrectly set. Even after three of his five monitors alarmed, the worker was allowed to continue to work in the area. Consequently, the worker received an unplanned exposure to radiation. However, regulatory limits were not exceeded.
The apparent violations include: a failure by radiation protection technicians to properly determine the allowable stay time in the high-radiation area; a failure to provide prescribed radiation monitors to workers; a failure to properly set alarms on radiation monitors; a failure to record radiation monitor data; a failure to instruct personnel to exit an area upon encountering unexpected alarms and radiological conditions; and a failure to properly monitor radiation dose, dose rate and stay time.
Also to be discussed during the conference will be BG&E's response to an NRC Confirmatory Action Letter issued on April 29. That letter confirmed improvements the utility agreed to make to its radiological controls program in the wake of recent problems at Calvert Cliffs. One of those improvements included the hiring of an independent assessor to review the quality and performance on ongoing radiological control activities. The findings of that assessment effort are due to the NRC by June 26.
No decision regarding enforcement will be made at the meeting. A decision on what, if any, type of enforcement action is appropriate is usually issued several weeks after the conference.
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